It is no secret that the PlayStation Vita isn’t doing quite as well as the 3DS in Japan, but Sony wants to assure gamers that developers are not pulling support from their handheld in favor of Nintendo’s platform.
In a recent report from Nikkei, the IGDA of Japan brought to light an anonymous quote that read:
Major Japanese companies are canceling all projects intended for Vita and are changing development to the 3DS.
US boss of Sony Worldwide Studios, Scott Rhode quickly countered this report, saying that it was “largely exaggerated.” Rhode went on to express his confidence in the Vita, telling Gamasutra:
I did not see that quote, but you see extremist quotes like that all the time. I mean, obviously, there is no way anyone could stand in front of a camera and say that all developers are changing focus from one platform to another, no matter what it is.
I know many, many, many third party developers and publishers are feverishly working on Vita titles, not just for now, but for the foreseeable future.
He also pointed out the tendencies development studios have to jump between platforms as the industry evolves.
You can, whatever — rewind two years ago. Every developer was you knew was selling — going towards — I was going to say ‘selling their soul’, it almost came out — to go build games for Zynga and the Facebook platform. And there’s another time when you see everyone is going to do smaller iPad games, or iOS games in general.
Then it was PS3, it was 360, it’s Vita, it’s 3ds. It’s always, constantly changing. It’s not something that concerns me whatsoever.
The PS Vita is out now for first edition users in the US and Canada, and formally launches on Feb 22nd worldwide.
